Smiles and Art

Can you see Baby in this picture?

No not in the picture on the wall... she is under the pile of blankets on the bed.

Baby loves to have blankets on top of her and sometimes it causes me to think she is lost somewhere. She has a tendency to wander and sometime the front door, the side gate, or the garage door are left open and she escapes into the neighborhood. So when I can't find her for a few minutes, I panic, then remember to find a pile of blankets somewhere in the house and start checking those. Depending on how messy my house is this could take a while as my children, for some reason, enjoy piling up blankets randomly in the house.

Sometimes when I pull up the blankets, Baby is fast asleep. Other times I pull up the blanket and she is there waiting for me with a big grin and a giggle.

Lindsey, our friend/nanny/sitter/volunteer, told us about a great place with a "beach" to go play at with the kids. (We are in Utah, the beaches are man made or covered in seaweed, saltwater or jet skis.) We tried it out and it brought smiles to everyone's faces... well, the only time Brother really smiled was when he got to try on Lindsey's sunglasses.

  Ducks too!

Of course there were rocks too, and Baby loves rocks. I'm not quite sure why she loves rocks so much, but, trust me, if there are rocks where we are, that's where she will be.

Mine and Baby's feet... sure puts our sizes in perspective, doesn't it.

Yep, this is where he showed us his smile.

 That week we also had a reunion with my dad's family at the Benjamin Church house. All my aunts and uncles were there and many of my cousins. It was so good to see them. I am so thankful for my heritage and my upbringing.

After we ate lunch most of us headed outside to the park across the street and played on the playground equipment, threw some water balloons around, chatted, laughed and even painted faces.

Jessie has a real talent with face art, it's fun to watch her. It is even more fun to see the smiles on the kids faces when they get done and get to look at themselves in the mirror.

Millie was happy to have matching face art for her t-shirt.

Bless my sister's heart, she is a great artist but not such a great actress. She is supposed to pretend like she is painting our cousin's son's face, but I think we may have missed the bar here... love you Jessie, really I do, but we'll need to work on the reenactments for the parent picture ops.

Jessie even allowed me to get in on the fun. This little sweetie (my cousin, Brooke's son) was my favorite challenge. He was wiggly, but his scrunchy faces made us all laugh. Thanks buddy!

The kids who were nervous about having it on their face, let me paint their arms. Tee hee!

 

This was my favorite one to do. My Aunt Lori asked for a anchor "tattoo." I had to add in my bit of humor by staking her husband's claim there too. I am sure Uncle Eric would totally agree that she IS his anchor. (smile)

 LittleB and Yaya are getting in on the fun too.

 Uncle Mark was having fun filling up the balloons with water for fun games like, "see who can pop the balloon on Joel's back" and "see how many throws your balloon will last without popping on the grass." He's still a kid at heart

The real kids wanted in on the water play too. My cousin, Ashley's son figured out how to get the water on.

Sister was in heaven with all the monkey bars at the park. I really need to look into getting her into a gymnastics class where she could learn more on the bars, she is so strong that way. Oh, and that is supposed to the Red Power Ranger on her cheek... OK, so I'm not good at everything...

The 3 younger granddaughters were having a blast on the swing set.

Especially with Grandma Judy adding even more fun with her games and faces!

Chelsea took and edited this picture, so I can't take credit, but I had to share it on the blog because it's so cute.

 A few nights later Sister and Baby were doing this...

While my mom and I were doing this.

My mom had to get in on the fun of my sidewalk chalk fun. I even let her use what little I had left of my black chalk... now that is sacrifice. So worth it though, it's fun to have my mom draw with me.

And to fit in with all my chalk art images, I had to come up with a cheesy saying for hers too.

Hope there's no long faces after reading this post!

(smile)